NAVAL DISCUSSIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 913, 5 March 1930, Page 9

NAVAL DISCUSSIONS

COMMITTEE TO MEET ON THURSDAY POSITION IN FRANCE Reed. 1 p.m.. LONDON, Tuesday. Heads of the delegations to the Naval Conference including M. Fleuriau and all the Dominion representatives met this morning and arranged for the first committee to meet on Thursday and consider their expert sub-committee’s report. The heads will meet again on Friday. M. Fleuriau is unable to proceed with active work because the French Cabinet has not yet been before the Chamber of Deputies. The delegations sincerely hoped that the French would attend the first committee on Thursday. The Prime Minister, Mr. Ramsay McDonald conferred lengthily with the Japenese delegation after today’s meeting. In the House of Commons, Mr. McDonald said he would consider the question, providing, by international law, against the sinking of merchantmen by aircraft thus endangering crews and passengers. He could not guarantee that it would be discussed at the conference. JAPANSES DEMANDS It is understood that the Americans persuaded the Japanese not to adhere rigidly to their demand for 70 per cent, of America’s large cruiser strength. They pointed out that the United States, in any case, is not likely to have more than 15 vessels of that type built by 1936 when the next conference is due. The idea is that Japan should use her spare tonnage below 70 per cent, in small cruisers and destroyers. The “Daily Telegraph’s” diplomatic correspondent says the latest American plan is to build 9,500-ton cruisers mounting possibly 14 six-inch guns. This introduces a new factor in the negotiations owing to the relative weakness of Japan’s 5,000-ton cruisers, ca> ryiug not more than seven SJ-inch guns. Britain’s 5,400-ton cruisers do not mount more than eight 6-inch pieces. AMERICA’S PROPOSITION America’s new proposition to Japan is still only informal, hut it was the chief subject of conversations which Messrs. D. A. Reed and J. T. Robinson, American delegates, had today with Mr. A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, and Mr. R. L. Craigie, counsellor in the diplomatic service. The "Daily Herald” states that as a result of the American - Japanese conversations, the so-called Japanese problem before the conference is very nearly settled. _